The Veterans
and Families' Guide to Recovering from PTSD and Solomon Recovery Project are dedicated to the
honor and memory of LCDR Robert "Trey" Edward Clukey III, USN, in the name of all US veterans who have paid the
ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country. "Plumbr" (Please Lord Undo My Bomb Racks) was lost at sea when
his F/A-18 Hornet went down on a stormy, dark night in the Adriatic Sea. He was flying a training mission from his Norfolk-based
carrier, the USS George Washington.
Born February 21, 1969 in Bangor, Maine, Trey attended Orono schools and graduated
in 1987. Trey was a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Bangor. During high school, he was active with the Orono
Rescue Squad as an EMT, the Sugarloaf Junior Ski Patrol, and Dirigo Search and Rescue. Trey was selected for the US Naval
Academy, Annapolis, MD and graduated in 1991. He was a member of the sailing team and sailed ocean racers.
Trey subsequently
attended pilot training and earned his wings in 1994. He trained for the F/A-18 at El Toro NAS and served at Lamoore NAS.
After two sea tours with the Pacific Fleet on the Carl Vinson and the Lincoln, he attended "Top Gun" school and
transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. He instructed at Strike Fighter Weapons School Atlantic until becoming Tactics Office for
VFA-34 Blue Blasters. Plumbr was considered the East Coast Hornet air-to-ground "employment" expert. He loved to
fly, loved to talk about flying, and loved teaching tactics of flying...His many awards suggest he was very good at it!
In his own words,
in a letter his family found just after his death, "Please know that all I ever wanted was to be a Navy fighter pilot,
and if in doing that was how I died, then I died happy and fulfilled."
~Requiescat~
